ALF on the Speedrun website

[samstokes80]

I enjoy watching speedruns of old games, and am endlessly impressed by the players that can absolutely obliterate them. Anyway, I found out there are a small number of gamers that have made a mission of speedrunning the ALF Sega Master System game. The record is 4:53, can you believe that?

Anyway, I never managed to beat the game, as it's kind of difficult and really so vaguely related to ALF, it's kind of sad. However, I saw that there was a speedrun category called Book% with a record of 1:44. I looked to see what it was, and it is this: if you buy the item "ALF Book" in one of the shops, it tells the story of how ALF crashed on earth and eventually sold his story to Sega to make into a game. They agreed that if anyone were to read this book they would have to start the game over again. Then the game abruptly goes back to the title screen. I watched the world record run and took notes. I practiced it until I managed to get to the book without dying and submitted my first ever speedrun record of 2:22, so I'm 4th place out of 4 players to submit records. Ha! I kill me!

Anyway, I think I'll work on trying to beat the full game. I'm not planning to take the world record, but I thought it would be fun just to actually beat the game for once!

Check out the speedrun records here:
https://www.speedrun.com/alf

[samstokes80]

My %Book time is down to 1:58.5, but I'm still 4th place, lol.

Also, I managed to get to the very last level of the game, where ALF is flying a rocket scooter to the moon. I couldn't beat that segment without using a save state, though, so I'm still working on legitimately beating the game for the first time. Getting closer, though!

[cooper243]

I haven't booted up my Sega Master System in over 10 years. I wonder if I can still hook it up to a modern TV. Might be time to find out soon. I just remember really wanting to like this game, and not liking it.

[samstokes80]

Yeah, it's unfortunately an awful game. It has ridiculously little to do with the story of ALF and the gameplay mechanics are super awkward. To me the primary challenge is figuring out how to survive in spite of the terrible mechanics. Nevertheless, I've always wanted to be able to beat it just once!

[samstokes80]

I finally beat the game! I completed it in 9:55, which takes 12th (last) place on the speedrun website. I couldn't be happier though, lol

https://youtu.be/-Rei5CcNDCw

[samstokes80]

I just posted that same run of the game with a little bit of whimsical commentary:

https://youtu.be/xHhNwy74rno

[Admin]

Awesome video, thanks for sharing! I've never played that game...nice to learn more about it.

On a side note, I got my old Commodore 64 from my folks (been sitting in their basement for nearly a quarter century collecting dust, lol). Going to grab out ALF: The First Adventure when I get it all cleaned up.